Ban on after-class prayer stands

ByCompiled From Wire Service Dispatches With Analysis From Monitor Correspondents Around The WorldEdited By Anne CollierJanuary 18, 1983

Washington
— The Supreme Court, steering clear of the hot political issue of prayer in public schools, refused Monday to allow schoolchildren to hold religious meetings in classrooms after hours.

The justices let stand a ruling declaring unconstitutional the Lubbock, Texas , school system's ''equal access'' policy, which gave elementary and high school student religious groups the same use of classrooms as nonreligious groups.

The justices also stayed out of a religious freedom dispute over whether skullcaps can be worn by Jewish high school basketball players despite a league safety rule banning headwear during games.

The court refused the government's plea for speedy treatment of its appeal of a Wyoming ruling that struck down the windfall oil profits tax. Federal lawyers argued that the threat of having to refund more than $26 billion already collected in taxes could disrupt the federal budget process.